My Friend The Chocolate Cake

My Friend The Chocolate Cake has been a Melbourne institution for over two decades, known for their energetic live shows and Melbourne-centric lyrics. Fresh from a sold-out show at The Spiegeltent and preparing to play at the Carnival of Suburbia, we caught up with MFTCC co-founder David Brodie to chat about touring, East Richmond Station and a new album.

My Friend The Chocolate Cake is an ensemble band – six different musicians with various influences and styles. How do you make these elements work together?
It can be challenging at times, but I think we’re getting better at it. Playing a number of different styles has always been part of what we do – pop songs, singer-songwriter songs, ballads, etc. Within those styles the personalities of all the band comes out.

You’ve got a new album, Fiasco, coming out in April. Do you road test the songs before putting them on the album?
When you play a song you can judge pretty quickly if a song’s working or not, playing live is like a truth serum. So far we’ve had a great response to the new songs.

You were one of the first bands to play The Spiegeltent in Melbourne, and have traveled with it to Edinburgh. What’s different about playing the tent?
When the song’s kick, the tent kicks. When you play a quiet tune, you can hear a pin drop. And the vaudeville atmosphere lends itself to MFTCC’s feel.

Favourite venues to play in Melbourne?
Venues work best when they can be both loud and quiet. We tend to like it when 3/4 of the audience is sitting, and 1/4 is up around and dancing. So some of my favourties are The Forum, Thornbury Theatre and The Athenaeum.

Tell is about the new single, ’25 Stations’.
It’s about waiting at East Richmond Station as train after train breezed by. I think anyone who’s ever had to wait there can identify with this. It’s also a pretty good pop song.

MFTCC play the Oakleigh RSL (95-97 Drummond St, Oakleigh) this Thursday, 10th March.
For tickets visit www.carnivalofsuburbia.com
Fiasco is out late April on Shock Records